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It would be hard to argue against a plan that would save the university $30 million, if we knew that to be the case.

But no one outside the black box of UK planning has any idea what alternatives have been considered because no one has been either informed or consulted in the process.

The community really has no idea what designs have been considered, why the footprint is so large that it engulfs the historic buildings, why the law school must go on that spot (so far from the city's legal center downtown) or where this fits into UK's master plan.

UK doesn't have the money to build a new law school now, so neither demolition nor construction is imminent.

It does have a new president in Eli Capilouto who can, and should, look at this project with fresh eyes.

It is Capilouto who, in less than a year on the job, moved plans to build six new dorms onto the fast track. UK has just this month hired a firm to update its master plan, a process that's supposed to take about eight months and include meetings with surrounding neighborhoods.

That outreach is encouraging.However, it's a strange juxtaposition: a huge construction campaign first and a master plan second.

This all feeds back into the long-held and too-often reinforced perception that UK isn't really very interested in working closely with the city and surrounding neighborhoods to create a great university in a livable city.

Examples abound, including the towering steel power poles and lines servicing the new hospital that mar the surrounding neighborhoods. ("We probably should have taken it to the neighborhood sooner," Wiseman said at the time after neighbors and the city complained.)

Educators are quick to say that learning is about more than what happens in the classroom. The intellectual and cultural life of the university are also teaching environments that prepare students to be thoughtful, productive, engaged members of society.

It's because of this that a UK administrator's insistence that other considerations — community concerns, historic preservation or whatever — won't stand in its way is so disappointing.